Communication of location information for an ip telephony communication device

ABSTRACT

Techniques for providing location information describing a communication device configured to exchange telephony information over a computer network. A switching device of the computer network receives a first message according to a node-to-node communication protocol, the first message indicating that the endpoint communication device includes a configuration for a mode of operation on behalf of a telephone service account. The switching device determines from the first message an identifier of the telephone service account and sends the determined identifier in a second message via the computer network, the second message in support of a location service.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to computer networkcommunications. More particularly, certain embodiments relate tointernet protocol (IP) telephony in a packet switched network.

2. Background Art

Increasingly, network mobility allows communication devices capable ofIP telephony to operate on behalf of a particular telephone serviceaccount at different times from different computer network access pointsand/or different geographic regions. Furthermore, telephony technologiesincreasingly allow such communication devices to operate on behalf ofdifferent telephone service accounts at different times and/or allow aparticular service account to be serviced by different communicationdevices at different times. Therefore, the dynamic nature of IP networktelephony results in frequent changes in the association between aparticular telephone service account and a geographic location of acommunication device operating on behalf of that particular telephoneservice account.

These dynamic changes pose a problem for services such as emergencytelephone number (e.g. “911”) services, which rely on up-to-dategeographic information to correctly dispatch emergency medical, policeand/or fire services. To support access to emergency response servicesvia IP telephony, IP networks usually rely on a central exchange—e.g. avoice over internet protocol (VoIP) private branch exchange (PBX)—whichprocesses an IP telephony call placed to an emergency telephone numberprior to sending call information on to the emergency telephone numberservice. Typically, the central exchange extracts from network packetsof an emergency call a telephone number or other identifier of atelephone service account on whose behalf the emergency call was placed.A location service uses the extracted account identifier to retrievegeographic location information which is then included in the call tothe emergency telephone number service.

Currently, updates related to certain device-specific locationinformation are communicated in “end-to-end” data exchanges between thelocation service and the communication device whose location is to bedetermined by the location service. More particularly, these updates areexchanged via higher level communication protocols such as the SessionInitiation Protocol (SIP). Operating, for example, at the Open SystemsInterconnection (OSI) application layer 7, such protocols maycommunicate across one or more intermediary network nodes, wherein thecommunication device and the location service operate as a sourcesending and/or a destination receiving the location information update.The location service uses end-to-end communication to participate inseparate respective message exchanges with each specific communicationdevice in order to keep its location information up-to-date. As aresult, the accuracy of the location service's information may, forexample, be subject to temporary and/or intermittent unavailability ofcommunication devices. Moreover, one or more intermediary networkswitching devices may have to relay multiple exchanges betweencommunication devices and the location service—e.g. wherein theintermediary switching device itself does not participate in retrievinglocation information in response to an emergency call. Therefore,current techniques of providing location services for IP telephony may,for example, result in latent location information updates and/ornetwork loading which reduces network performance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The various embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by wayof example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of theaccompanying drawings and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing select elements of a system in whichlocation information may be exchanged according to various embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing select elements of a communicationdevice to exchange location information according to variousembodiments.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing select elements of a communicationdevice to exchange location information according to variousembodiments.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an algorithm for exchanging locationinformation according to various embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating select elements of a data packetfor communicating location information according to various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments include techniques for providing locationinformation related to a network device which communicates with apacket-switched computer network (also referred to herein as a “computernetwork”). The network device may communicate with the computer networkvia a switching device—e.g. wherein the network device communicatesdirectly with the switching device as an endpoint communication device,or wherein the network device communicates with the switching device onbehalf of an endpoint communication device.

In certain embodiments, the above-described communications may includethe network device exchanging a stream of audio and/or video data viathe computer network—e.g. to implement a telephony session. The exchangeof data may be debited from, attributed to, or otherwise described interms of a specific account—such as a telephone serviceaccount—recognized by a service provider—such as a local exchangecarrier (LEC)—which resources are used to implement the exchange. Anendpoint communication device—e.g. the network device or a communicationdevice on whose behalf the network device exchanges communications—maybe configured so that a user's local operation of the endpointcommunication device thereby accesses resources of the account.

The computer network may include a location service—e.g. any of avariety of combinations of one or more databases, servers and othernetwork devices which gather location information for later retrievaland/or other use by a client. The location server may exchangeinformation describing a geographic location of the endpointcommunication device. Changes to the operation and/or configuration ofthe endpoint communication device may result in a need to update thelocation information of the location server. In certain embodiments, theswitching device may receive a message from the network device anddetermine from the message update information to be sent to the locationservice.

The message received by the switching device may include informationspecifying a service account which an endpoint communication device isconfigured to serve. The message may be formatted according to a“node-to-node” (also known as “single hop”) protocol which is at leastinterpreted as being directly sent from a source node—i.e. without anyintermediary network nodes. The use of node-to-node protocols may allowlocation information to be included in a discovery message or other lowlevel exchange between an endpoint communication device and a switchingdevice, where the switching device can variously process and/or storethe location information for later sending to a location service—e.g.along with location information for one or more other endpointcommunication devices. Furthermore, use of node-to-node protocols mayallow location information to be exchanged without requiring a locationservice to establish separate respective communication sessions withindividual endpoint communication devices.

FIG. 1 shows a network 100 including a network device 110 and aswitching device 120 connecting network device 110 to a packet-switchedcomputer network 130. The network 130 may communicate voice information,such as telephony information, in data packets. In an embodiment, thecomputer network 130 may include one or more devices interconnected forwired communication—e.g. according to an Ethernet standard such asInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Std802.3ae-2002 (June, 2002). By way of illustration and not limitation,the computer network 130 may include any of a variety of combinations ofpublic and/or private networks including one or more of an internet, alocal area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) and a metropolitanarea network (MAN).

Network device 110 may include any of a variety of devices capable ofimplementing voice communications over the packet-switched computernetwork 130. Such communications may, for example, include computernetwork 130 switching data packets according to an internet protocol(IP) to implement an audio and/or video stream for network device 110.These communications may include any of a variety of techniquesvariously known, for example, as IP telephony, Internet telephony, Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP), Voice over Broadband (VoBB), broadbandtelephony and/or broadband phone. For the purpose of brevity indescribing the invention, certain features of various embodiments aredescribed herein in terms of VoIP communications. It is appreciated,however, that aspects of these embodiments can be extended to includeadditional or alternate techniques for implementing audio and/or videotelephony information in a packet-switched computer network.

In certain embodiments, the network device 110 may include an endpointcommunication device. As used herein, “endpoint” is understood to referto a device's characteristic of lying at one end of a data path (such asa data stream of an IP telephony session) that originates and/orterminates at that device—e.g. at an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC) of the network device 110 or at a telephony applicationprogram executed by a processor of the network device 110. An endpointcommunication device may, for example, include a purpose-built telephonedevice dedicated to providing VoIP capability. Additionally oralternatively, an endpoint communication device may include any ofvariety of computing devices—e.g. a personal digital assistant (PDA) orother personal computer (PC) device such as a notebook, laptop ordesktop—which includes software and/or hardware capable of implementingVoIP communications. In certain embodiments, the endpoint communicationdevice may include an ability to perform a conversion of a user's voiceto and/or from switched data packets of computer network 130. Inparticular embodiments, network device 110 may be an endpointcommunication device which is directly connected to only one othernetwork device such as switching device 120. Operation of network device110 as an endpoint communication device may be determined by and/ordescribed according to various endpoint communication device data 112stored in network device 110.

In certain embodiments, network device 110 itself may not include anendpoint IP telephony communication device, but may rather include adevice—e.g. a wireless router—which connects the switching device 120 tosome other device (not shown) that operates as an endpoint communicationdevice such as described above. In some such embodiments, endpointcommunication device data 112 may include data to determine and/ordescribed operation of this other device as an IP telephonycommunication device. For example, endpoint communication data 112 maybe information to be sent to or received from the endpoint communicationdevice to communicate a mode of its operation on behalf of a particulartelephone service account.

Certain features are discussed herein in terms of embodiments whereinthe network device 110 includes an endpoint communication device andexchanges endpoint communication device data related to operation of thenetwork device 110 as an endpoint communication device. However, it isunderstood that aspects of these discussed embodiments may be extendedto apply to embodiments wherein network device 110 communicates endpointcommunication device data 112 describing an operation of another networkdevice as an endpoint communication device.

As an endpoint communication device, network device 110 may beconfigured to operate in the service of a particular account (referredto herein as a “telephone service account”) which may be established,supported, managed or otherwise recognized by a telephone serviceprovider. A telephone service provider may include a publictelecommunications company—e.g. a local exchange carrier (LEC)—whichsets up and/or maintains telephone subscriber accounts for privatecitizens, businesses, government organizations, etc. Alternately or inaddition, a telephone service provider may include any of a variety ofgovernment organizations, private businesses and/or similar enterpriseswhich set up and/or maintain their own accounts for distinguishingcallers within a private telephone network used by employees, members,clients, etc. In an embodiment, a telephone service account establishedby one telephone service provider may nevertheless be supported,implemented or otherwise recognized by another telephone serviceprovider.

In certain embodiments, network device 110 may beconfigurable/reconfigurable to operate at different times in the serviceof different telephone service accounts. For example, network device 110may include parameter(s)—e.g. in endpoint communication device data112 - for variously defining/redefining a configuration of networkdevice 110 for different modes of operation. For one configuration,network device 110 may operate in a mode which provides for telephonycommunication over a packet-switched network on behalf of a firsttelephone service account. In such a configuration, a user's localoperation of network device 110 may thereby access resources of thetelephone service provider which are specific to the first telephoneservice account. At another time with a parameter in endpointcommunication device data 112 set to a different value, a differentconfiguration may result wherein local operation of network device 110accesses telephone service resources which are specific to a differenttelephone service account.

Endpoint communication device data 112 may include information whichspecifies, describes, or otherwise identifies a particular telephoneservice account. By way of illustration and not limitation, endpointcommunication device data 112 may include a telephone number and/ortelephone number extension uniquely assigned to a specific telephoneservice account. Alternatively or in addition, endpoint communicationdevice data 112 may include a user name, login name, password and/orother identifier which specifies a particular user or users to which thetelephone service account has been assigned.

It is understood that endpoint communication device data 112 may beseparate from and/or independent of various network connectivitycontexts within which the network device 110 may itself be recognized bycomputer network 130. For example, information in endpoint communicationdevice data 112 may be distinguished from and/or independent of anaddress which is assigned to device 100 by computer network 130—such asan IP address—to identify network device 110 as a particular routingdestination. Similarly, the information in endpoint communication devicedata 112 may be distinguished from and/or independent ofinformation—such as a Media Access Control (MAC) address—used toidentify network device 110 as a particular physical device of thenetwork 100. An assigned IP address and/or a MAC address of networkdevice 110 may persist across different modes of operation of networkdevice 110, wherein each mode is for communication with computer network130 on behalf of a different telephone service account.

Switching device 120 may include any of variety of switches and/orrouters to switchably exchange data packets for communication betweennetwork device 110 and other devices of network 100. For example,switching device 120 may include at least one port 122—e.g. an Ethernetconnection—by which devices such as network device 110 may be coupled,and communicate with, other devices of network 100. In an embodiment,switching device may include at least one of an OSI layer 2 switch andan OSI layer 3 switch.

In certain embodiments, switching device 120 may be associated with oneor more pre-defined geographic regions which, for example, variouslycorrespond to locations and/or areas of accessibility for one or morerespective resources of switching device 120. By way of illustration andnot limitation, a geographic region 114 may be include a location ofport 122 (or of a point of access thereto 116—e.g. an Ethernet cable, aninput/output jack, a modem, a wireless router) and an actual or expectedrange of service coverage provided by port 122 (or by the point ofaccess thereto 116). In certain embodiments, a direct or indirect accessof port 122 may be identified from and/or described according to thegeographic region 114 which, before said access, has been registered innetwork 100 as being associated with port 122. It is understood thatnetwork 100 may include any of a variety of combinations of additionalor alternate geographic regions variously associated with one or morerespective resources of switching device 120. For example, geographicregion 114 may represent the entire service area covered by allresources of switching device 120. Alternatively, geographic region 114may represent only a subset of a larger geographic region (not shown) inwhich resources of switching device 120 are variously available.

Predefining the one or more geographic regions may include storing inthe network 100 information which specifies, identifies or otherwisedescribes the one or more geographic regions. In certain embodiments,switching device 120 may store a geographic identifier (or GID, notshown) which identifies geographic region 114. It is understood thatswitching device 120 may store any of a variety of combinations ofadditional or alternate GIDs which describe geographic regions variouslyassociated with some combination of one or more resources of switchingdevice 120. A GID may include information stored in any of a variety ofrecognized formats including, but not limited to, the Coordinate-basedLocation Configuration Information (LCI) format as defined by theInternet Engineering Taskforce (IET) Request for Comments (RFC) 3825,July 2004, the Civic Addresses Configuration Information format asdefined by the IET RFC 4676, issued October 2006 and the EmergencyLocation Identification Number (ELIN) format as defined by the NationalEmergency Number Association (NENA) Technical Information Document (TID)07-501, issued June, 2004.

Network 100 may include a location service 145 to gather, provide orotherwise manage location information for retrieval or other use by aclient. The client may itself be a service of network 100 such as, forexample, a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) 160—a call center toanswer calls placed to an emergency telephone number—e.g. in support ofdispatching emergency medical, fire and/or police services. For example,PSAP 160 may include a call center to provide emergency services such asthe 911 emergency service recognized in North America, the 112 emergencyservice recognized in the European Union, and/or the 119 emergencyservice recognized in various Asian countries. Computer network 130 mayexchange data packets to implement a VoIP call which is placed to anemergency telephone number of PSAP 160. Emergency call service 140 mayprocess data packets to generate information to be sent to PSAP 160—e.g.via a network 150. In an embodiment, network 150 includes acircuit-switched network such as a public switched telephone network(PSTN). Although features of certain embodiments are discussed herein interms of providing location services in support of emergency telephoneservices, it is appreciated that concepts described herein may beextended to apply to any of a variety of other services (e.g. networkadministration, internet security services, etc.) which may retrieve orotherwise use geographic location information managed by a locationservice 145.

According to various regulations and standards for emergency responsesystems, an emergency call received at PSAP 160 may be required toinclude information describing a geographic location associated with theoriginator of the emergency call. More particularly, certain dataimplementing an emergency call to PSAP 160 via computer network 130 maybe required to include a GID prior to the data being received by PSAP160. Including a GID may account for the possibility of a recent changein how a particular telephone service account is associated with aparticular geographic region. For example, network device 110 may haverecently moved from accessing computer network 130 from a previousgeographic region (not shown) to accessing computer network 130 from thegeographic region 114 defined as being associated with port 122.Alternately or in addition, network device 110 may be reconfigured atdifferent times for local operation on behalf of a different telephoneservice to accesses computer network 130 from geographic region 114 viaport 122. Such dynamic changes to the operation of network device 110result in a changed association of a particular telephone serviceaccount with a particular geographic region.

Network 100 may include mechanisms to track changes to the associationsof telephone service accounts with geographic regions. For example, PSAP160 may rely upon a network device such as emergency call service140—e.g. one or more databases, servers and/or other network devicecapable of maintaining, storing, retrieving and/or otherwise providinginformation describing a relationship between a particular telephoneservice account and a geographic location of a communication deviceoperating on behalf of that telephone service account.

In an embodiment, emergency call service 140 may include a PBX or othercentral service through which VoIP calls to an emergency telephonenumber must be processed if, for example, they are sent to PSAP 160 viacomputer network 130 (or some sub-network thereof). In response to anemergency call from network device 110, for example, emergency callservice 140 may retrieve location information which is maintained by alocation service 145. Although shown separately, it is understood that,in various embodiments, location service 145 may be included inemergency call service 140.

Location service 145 may retrieve the requested location informationusing one or more lookup operations to access information which, forexample, variously maps (1) telephone numbers to respective addresses(e.g. Media Access Control addresses) of communication devicesregistered as being associated with the telephone numbers, (2)communication device addresses to respective network access points—e.g.switch/port combinations—which are registered as servicing thecommunication devices, and/or (3) network access points to respectivegeographic regions registered as being serviced by the network accesspoints. It is understood that any of a variety of additional oralternate combinations of mappings of location information may be usedby location service 145.

Correct operation of emergency call service 140 may rely on the locationservice 145 having accurate data to correctly map or otherwisecorrespond various types of location information with one another. Tomaintain location information up-to-date, location service 145 mayconduct message exchanges with various devices which have detectedrecent changes in network 100.

FIG. 2 illustrates select elements of a network device 200 to exchangelocation information according to embodiments of the invention. Incertain embodiments, network device 200 may include one or more featuresdiscussed herein with respect to network device 110. Network device mayinclude a memory 210 to store a telephone service account ID 220 whichspecifies, describes or otherwise identifies a telephone serviceaccount. In an embodiment wherein network device 200 includes anendpoint IP telephony communication device, telephone service account ID220 may include a phone number, extension, login name or otheridentifier which, for example, uniquely identifies a telephone serviceaccount for which network device 200 is itself configured to operate.For example, telephone service account ID 220 may determine and/orreflect that network device 200 is configured so that local operation ofnetwork device 200—e.g. direct physical manipulation of the networkdevice 200 by a local user—avails of resources of a telephone serviceprovider which are assigned specifically to the identified telephoneservice account. In an embodiment wherein network device is not itselfan endpoint IP telephony communication device, telephone service accountID 220 may store an identifier of a telephone service account for whichanother network device (not shown) is configured to operate as anendpoint IP telephony communication device.

Network device 230 may include an interface 230 to receive input forgenerating the telephone service account ID 220 stored in memory 210. Inan embodiment wherein network device 200 includes an endpoint IPtelephony communication device, interface 230 may include, for example,a keyboard, keypad, touch screen, graphical user interface or other suchuser interface to receive a user input assigning an account-specificconfiguration for operation of network device 200. In an embodimentwherein network device is not itself an endpoint IP telephonycommunication device, interface 230 may include, for example, an antennaor similar receiver to receive a message from another network device(not shown) configured to operate as an endpoint IP telephonycommunication device, wherein the network device 200 may generate thetelephone service account ID 220 stored in memory 210 based on thereceived message.

Network device 200 may include a link layer controller 240 to access thestored telephone service account ID 220 and to generate a message basedon the accessing. In an embodiment, the generated message may indicatethat an endpoint communication device—e.g. network device 200 or anothernetwork device (not shown) connected thereto—includes a configurationfor local operation of the endpoint communication device on behalf ofthe identified telephone service account. For example, the localoperation of the endpoint communication device may be for a userassociated with the telephone service account to exchange telephonyinformation such as VoIP data over the packet-switched computer network.Link Layer controller 240 may include any of a variety of combinationsof hardware and/or software controlling means including, but not limitedto an application program executed by a data processor, an ASIC, a statemachine, and/or firmware.

In certain embodiments, link layer controller 240 may control a networkinterface 250 of the network device 200—e.g. to have network interface250 send the generated message according to a protocol limited tocommunication across a single network link. Network interface 250 mayinclude an Ethernet port or any of a variety of other interfaceconnections to couple network device 200 to a switching device. Forexample, the message generated by link layer controller 240 and sent vianetwork interface 250 may communicate a configuration of an endpointcommunication device according to a node-to-node (also known as “singlehop”) protocol. As used herein, “node-to-node” or “single hop” refers tothe characteristic of a communications protocol which is dedicated tocommunications that are at least interpreted as being between directlyconnected network nodes—e.g. without any intermediary network nodes. Forexample, by virtue of the node-to-node protocol itself, a messageformatted according to the node-to-node protocol may be interpreted asbeing exchanged across only a single network link. Such a protocol mayinclude, for example, a network communication protocol for the data linklayer 2 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, or for the linklayer of the Internet Protocol Suite model. It is appreciated thatvarious technologies may allow an intermediary node to violate orcircumvent a node-to-node protocol—e.g. by relaying the node-to-nodecommunications between a source node and a destination node. For suchtechnologies, these intermediary node may be “transparent” to a sourceand/or destination node, which interprets the node-to-nodecommunications as direct source/destination exchanges spanning only asingle network link.

For example, link layer controller 240 may include functionality togenerate and/or exchange messages according to the Link Layer DiscoveryProtocol (LLDP) defined in the IEEE standard 802.1AB-2005 of May 2005.More particularly, link layer controller 240 may include functionalityfor network device 200 to communicate according to certain extensions tothe IEEE 802.1AB protocol which are set forth in the Link LayerDiscovery Protocol for Media Endpoint Devices (LLDP-MED) StandardTIA-1057 of the Telecommunications Industry Association (issued April,2006).

FIG. 3 illustrates select elements of a switching device 300 to exchangelocation information according to various embodiments. Switching device300 may, for example, include one or more features discussed herein withrespect to switching device 120. Switching device 300 may include one ormore ports—e.g. Port_1 320 a, . . . Port_N 320 n—to connect tocommunication device 200 and/or any of a variety of additional oralternative network devices—e.g. VoIP-capable endpoint communicationdevices.

Switching device 300 may be able to receive a message including locationinformation associated with an endpoint communication device. Forexample, switching device may include an operating system 310 such asthe ExtremeXOS® network operating system of Extreme Networks™ to controlthe switching of packets to/from endpoint communication devices—e.g. viavarious OSI layer 2 and/or layer 3 control protocols. Operating system310 may include or otherwise have access to a link layer processor 330with functionality to exchange messages according to a node-to-nodeprotocol—e.g. a protocol which is compatible with an LLDP protocol. Invarious embodiments, link layer processor 330 may be able to extract orotherwise determine from such a message an account identifier specifyinga telephone service account. For example, switching device 300 mayreceive a data packet via one of Port_1 320 a, . . . Port_N 320 n andidentify an account identifier in a field of the data packet which iscompatible with the LLDP-MED extended protocol.

Port_1 . . . 320 a, . . . Port_N 320 n may be associated with respectivepre-defined geographic regions (not shown). For example, of Port_1 320a, . . . Port_N 320 n may each be directly and/or indirectly accessedfrom within respective geographic regions. These geographic regions maybe specified by ELIN numbers—e.g. ELIN_1 . . . , ELIN_N—or according toany of a variety of alternate geographic identification conventions. Incertain embodiments, switching device 300 may further store one or moregeographic identifiers (GIDs)—e.g. in a GID table 340. Each entry of GIDtable 340 may represent a respective one or more ports of switchingdevice 300. For example, each entry may include an identifier ofrepresented one or more ports (e.g. “Port_”, . . . “Port_N”) and ageographic identifier (e.g. “ELIN_1”, . . . , “ELIN_N”) specifying ageographic region serviced by the represented one or more ports.

Switching device 300 may send a message including the account identifierdetermined by link layer processor 330—e.g. via a network interface325—to a computer network such as network 130 in support of a locationservice having characteristics such as those discussed above withrespect to location service 145. Network location service agent 350 mayinclude any of a variety of combinations of software and hardware meansto coordinate a communication of location information to a locationservice.

Coordinating the communication of location information to a locationservice may include network location service agent 350 directly orindirectly assuring that the determined account identifier is sent tothe location service according to any of a variety of communicationprotocols including, but not limited to, an end-to-end networkcommunication protocol. As used herein, an end-to-end network protocolrefers to a protocol capable of communicating information from a sourcenetwork node across one or more intermediate network nodes to adestination network node. An end-to-end protocol may, for example,include a protocol of the OSI model which is at or above the networklayer 3 and/or a protocol of the Internet Protocol Suite model which isat or above the Internet layer. In particular embodiments, switchingdevice 300 may send location information including the determinedaccount identifier according to a protocol compatible with one of aSimple Object Access Protocol and a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

Although features of switching device 300 are illustrated herein interms of functionally distinct operating system 310, link layerprocessor 330 and network location service agent 350, it is appreciatedthat their respective functionalities may be integrated in any of avariety of combinations of hardware and/or software. For example, someor all of the functionality of operating system 310, separate link layerprocessor 330 and network location service agent 350 may be variouslyintegrated in a combination of one or more of an application programexecuting on a processor, an ASIC, firmware, a state machine, a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) and/or similar computing means.

FIG. 4 illustrates select elements of an algorithm 400 for communicatinglocation information according to an embodiment of the invention.Algorithm 400 may be performed in a network having some or all of thecharacteristics of network 100, for example. In an embodiment, algorithm400 may be performed by switching device 120.

Algorithm 400 may include, at 410, receiving a first message accordingto a node-to-node protocol—e.g. wherein, by virtue of the node-to-nodeprotocol itself, the first message is interpreted as communicatingacross only a single network link—the first message indicating that anendpoint communication device is configured for operation on behalf of atelephone service account. The first message may be sent to a switchingdevice by a network device which is configured for operation as anendpoint communication device for a VoIP telephony session.Alternatively, the first message may be sent by a device such as atransparent intermediary node communicating location informationreceived from such an endpoint communication device.

In response to receiving the first message, a switching device may, at420, determining from information in the first message an accountidentifier specifying the telephone service account. Further in responseto the first message, the switching device may, at 430, send a secondmessage including the determined account identifier, the second messagesent in support of a location service. The second may be sent from theswitching device in a format according to, or compatible with, anend-to-end protocol. In various embodiments, the location service maycollect, provide, or otherwise manage location information for laterretrieval and/or use by a client thereof. A location service client mayinclude, for example, a PSAP 160, emergency call service 140, and/or anyof a variety of network administration or network security serviceswhich retrieve or otherwise use geographic location information.

In certain embodiments, the switching device may store information—e.g.GID table 340—describing an association of a port of the switchingdevice with a geographic region having an access to the port. In suchembodiments, the switching device may further respond to the firstmessage by determining from the stored information a geographicidentifier specifying the geographic region. For example, the switchingdevice may identify a port by which the first message was received anduse the identified port to access an entry of the GID table 340. Frominformation representing the identified port, the switching device maythen determine a geographic identifier specifying a geographic regionhaving access to the port.

In certain embodiments, the second message may include the determinedgeographic identifier in the second message, e.g. to specify to alocation service that the specified geographic location is associatedwith the telephone service account. For example, the second message mayspecify to the location service that the telephone service account isserviced by a communication device within the specified geographicregion. This information may be made available by the location serviceto a client—e.g. an emergency call service which may process anysubsequent emergency call from the endpoint communication device.

FIG. 5 illustrates select elements of a data packet 500 for exchanginglocation information according to certain embodiments of the invention.Data packet 500 may, for example, be a packet sent by network device 110and/or received by switching device 120. In certain embodiments, datapacket 500 may includes a format compatible with a node-to-node protocolsuch as LLDP—e.g. a LLDP data unit (LLDPDU) format including a number oftype-length-value (TLV) fields recognized by the IEEE 802.1AB standard.Data packet 500 may include certain TLV fields which are mandatory forLLDP communication, including a chassis ID TLV 510 and Port ID TLV 520to identify a device/port combination for the device transmitting theLLPDU. Data packet 500 may further include a Time to Live TLV 530representing a period of validity of data in the LLDPDU. Furthermore,data packet 500 may include an End of LLDP data unit (LLDPDU) TLV 560indicating the end of the LLDPDU.

Data packet 500 may further include TLV(s) which may be allowedoptionally under the LLDP standard—e.g. LLDP-optional TLV(s) 540 havingan account ID TLV 550 to communicate an account identifier as describedherein. In certain embodiments, account ID TLV 550 may include anaccount ID TLV type field 570 to indicate that the account ID TLV 550 isa type of TLV which may include an account identifier. Additionally,account ID TLV 550 may include an account ID string length field 580 toindicate the size of account ID TLV 550. Account ID TLV 550 may furtherinclude an account ID TLV string 590 including a payload of accountidentifier information. It is understood that account ID TLV 550 mayinclude any of a variety of additional or alternative data fields and/orformats.

Account ID TLV string 590 is illustrated as including anorganizationally unique identifier (OUI) field 592 for identifying aparticular organization and/or a particular TLV format established orused by the identified organization. OUI field 592 may, for example,enable a switching device receiving data packet 500 to determine how theaccount ID TLV string 590 is to be read and/or operated upon. Account IDTLV string 590 may further include an organizationally defined subtypefield 594 to more specifically categorize information in the account IDTLV string 590—e.g. according to a taxonomy established or recognized bythe organization identified by the OUI field 592.

Account ID TLV string 590 may further include an organizationallydefined string 596 having an account identifier specifying a telephoneservice account which an endpoint communication device is configured tooperate on behalf of. The endpoint communication device may be thenetwork device which transmits the data packet 500. Alternately, datapacket 500 may be sent from another network device—e.g. a wirelessrouter or “transparent” intermediary device—in communication with theendpoint communication device. The data packet may include informationto resolve which type of device has sent the data packet 500—e.g. anendpoint communication device or some intermediary network node onbehalf of the endpoint communication device. Such resolution may beprovided, for example, by information in organizationally definedsubtype field 594 and/or organizationally defined string field 596. Itis understood that account ID TLV string field 590 may include any of avariety of additional or alternative data fields and/or formats.

Techniques and architectures for network communication are describedherein. In the above description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to oneskilled in the art that the invention can be practiced without thesespecific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shownin block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the description.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the computingarts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to othersskilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to bea self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. Thesteps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities.Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form ofelectrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred,combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenientat times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to thesesignals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers,or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, andmagnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs) such as dynamic RAM (DRAM), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic oroptical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear from the description herein.In addition, the present invention is not described with reference toany particular programming language. It will be appreciated that avariety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachingsof the invention as described herein.

Besides what is described herein, various modifications may be made tothe disclosed embodiments and implementations of the invention withoutdeparting from their scope. Therefore, the illustrations and examplesherein should be construed in an illustrative, and not a restrictivesense. The scope of the invention should be measured solely by referenceto the claims that follow.

1. A method comprising: receiving a first message at a switching deviceof a network including a packet-switched computer network, the firstmessage received according to a node-to-node protocol for communicationacross only a single network link, the first message indicating that anendpoint communication device of the network includes a configurationfor a local operation of the endpoint communication device on behalf ofa telephone service account, the local operation for communicatingtelephony information over the packet-switched computer network; and inresponse to receiving the first message, the switching devicedetermining from information in the first message an account identifierspecifying the telephone service account, and sending from the switchingdevice a second message including the determined account identifier, thesecond message sent in support of a location service.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: at the switching device, storinginformation describing an association of a port of the switching devicewith a geographic region having an access to the port; and wherein thesecond message specifies an association of the geographic location withthe telephone service account.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein thefirst message is received via the port, the method further comprising inresponse to the first message, the switching device further determiningfrom the stored information a geographic identifier specifying thegeographic region; and wherein the second message specifying theassociation of the geographic location with the telephone serviceaccount includes the second message further having the determinedgeographic identifier.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein first messageis sent by the endpoint communication device.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein first message is sent by a wireless router in communication withthe endpoint communication device.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein thenode-to-node protocol of the first message is compatible with a LinkLayer Discovery Protocol.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein sending thesecond message in support of a location service includes sending thesecond message to the location service, wherein an emergency callservice retrieves information from the location service in response tothe packet-switched computer network exchanging data for a call to anemergency telephone number of a public safety answering point.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the second message is sent from the switchingdevice according to an end-to-end protocol for communicating across oneor more intermediate network devices to a destination device.
 9. Aswitching device comprising: a port to receive a first message from anetwork including a packet-switched computer network, the first messagereceived according to a node-to-node protocol, wherein the first messageis interpreted as being communicated across only a single network link,the first message indicating that an endpoint communication device ofthe network includes a configuration for a local operation of theendpoint communication device on behalf of a telephone service account,the local operation for communicating telephony information over thepacket-switched computer network; a link layer processor includingcircuitry responsive to the first message to determine from informationin the first message an account identifier specifying the telephoneservice account; and a network interface responsive to the first messageto send from the switching device a second message including thedetermined account identifier, the second message sent in support of alocation service.
 10. The switching device of claim 9, furthercomprising a memory to store information describing an association ofthe port with a geographic region having an access to the port; andwherein the second message specifies an association of the geographiclocation with the telephone service account.
 11. The switching device ofclaim 10, wherein the link layer processor further responsive to thefirst message to determine from the stored information a geographicidentifier specifying the geographic region, and wherein the secondmessage specifying the association of the geographic location with thetelephone service account includes the second message further having thedetermined geographic identifier.
 12. The switching device of claim 11,wherein the geographic identifier is compatible with one of aCoordinate-based Location Configuration Information format, a CivicAddresses Configuration Information format, and an Emergency LocationIdentification Number format.
 13. The switching device of claim 9,wherein the memory storing information describing the association of theport with the geographic region includes the memory storing a tableincluding one or more entries of geographic information, each entryrepresenting a respective one or more ports of the switch, each entryincluding: an identifier of represented one or more ports, and ageographic identifier specifying a geographic region serviced by therepresented one or more ports.
 14. The method of claim 9, wherein thenetwork interface sending the second message includes sending the secondmessage according to an end-to-end protocol for communicating across oneor more intermediate network devices to a destination device.
 15. Amachine-readable storage medium including instructions which whenexecuted cause a machine to perform a method comprising: receiving afirst message at a switching device of a network including apacket-switched computer network, the first message received accordingto a node-to-node protocol, the first message indicating that anendpoint communication device of the network includes a configurationfor a local operation of the endpoint communication device on behalf ofa telephone service account, the local operation for communicatingtelephony information over the packet-switched computer network; and inresponse to receiving the first message, the switching devicedetermining from information in the first message an account identifierspecifying the telephone service account, and sending from the switchingdevice a second message including the determined account identifier, thesecond message sent in support of a location service.
 16. Themachine-readable storage medium of claim 15, the method furthercomprising at the switching device, storing information describing anassociation of a port of the switching device with a geographic regionhaving an access to the port; and wherein the second message specifiesan association of the geographic location with the telephone serviceaccount.
 17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, whereinthe first message is received via the port, the method furthercomprising in response to the first message, the switching devicefurther determining from the stored information a geographic identifierspecifying the geographic region; and wherein the second messagespecifying the association of the geographic location with the telephoneservice account includes the second message further having thedetermined geographic identifier.
 18. The machine-readable storagemedium of claim 15, wherein the first message is sent by one of theendpoint communication device and a wireless router in communicationwith the endpoint communication device.
 19. The machine-readable storagemedium of claim 15, wherein the second message is sent from theswitching device according to an end-to-end protocol for communicatingacross one or more intermediate network devices to a destination device.20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein thenode-to-node protocol of the first message is compatible with a LinkLayer Discovery Protocol.
 21. A network device comprising: a memory tostore an account identifier specifying a telephone service accountassociated with an endpoint device of a network; a link layer controllercoupled to the memory, the link layer controller including circuitry toaccess the account identifier and to generate a message based on theaccessed account identifier, the message indicating that the endpointcommunication device includes a configuration for a local operation ofthe endpoint communication device on behalf of a telephone serviceaccount, the local operation for communicating telephony informationover the packet-switched computer network; and a network interfacecoupled to the link layer controller, the network interface to send themessage to a switching device of the network, including sending themessage according to a node-to-node protocol for communication acrossonly a single network link.
 22. The network device of claim 21, whereinthe network device is the endpoint communication device.
 23. The networkdevice of claim 21, wherein the sending the message to the switchingdevice is automatically triggered by a connecting of the endpointcommunication device to the port of the switching device.
 24. Thenetwork device of claim 21, wherein the sending the message to theswitching device is automatically triggered by a setting of theconfiguration of the endpoint communication device for the localoperation on behalf of the telephone service account, wherein theconfiguration is set after a connecting of the endpoint communicationdevice to the port of the switching device.